Jose Alvarado told an Allentown police detective he had dozed off on the living room couch of his Allen Street home in January as he waited for his children to get ready for school, then awoke to a sound he knew to be a gunshot.

He ran upstairs and was met by his wife, also startled awake, at their second-floor bathroom. Inside, they found their 8-year-old son Jose lying in a pool of blood, next to a backpack filled with the boy's video games -- a backpack Alvarado used the night before to store a loaded 9 mm handgun.

Alvarado clutched Jose, attempting to stop the blood pouring out of his chest, but it was too late and the boy died on the way to a hospital.

Allentown police Detective Glenn Granitz Jr. recounted the father's story in court Wednesday. Granitz said he was one of the first to arrive at the home Jan. 8 and had a lengthy interview with Alvarado, who admitted putting the gun in the backpack. Alvarado couldn't tell Granitz why he did that, saying he simply saw the backpack on the floor of his bedroom before he went to sleep and put the gun inside.

After hearing testimony from Granitz, District Judge Patricia Engler ruled Alvarado must face Lehigh County Court on involuntary manslaughter and related charges connected to his son's death.

With a recommendation from Lehigh County Pre-Trial Services, she also lowered Alvarado's bail from $2 million to $150,000, and he posted it. Alvarado, 26, had been in prison since his March 10 arrest.

While the death was ruled an accident, authorities have described it as preventable and a ''stupid mistake'' by the father.

When asked by Alvarado's lawyer, Eric Dowdle of Bethlehem, to give his opinion of what happened, Granitz called it tragic and devastating, adding, ''It could have been prevented by simple common sense and a few steps taken by the average citizen.''

According to Granitz's testimony:

He had just started his shift Jan. 8 when he was dispatched to a 911 call at 8:08 a.m. for a shooting at 1124 Allen St., the Alvarados' home. The boy's parents, Alvarado and Jaritza Torres, and his two brothers, ages 2 and 5, were also home when the gun went off.

Alvarado told Granitz the gun, which was registered to his wife, had been on top of a dresser in the bedroom, but before going to bed, he loaded it, racked a round into the chamber and, seeing the backpack on the floor of his bedroom, placed it inside. Normally, he kept the gun tucked between the mattress and box spring of his bed, he told Granitz.

Alvarado said the morning of the shooting, he woke the two older boys for school. He went to the living room, started watching a television show and dozed off. At some point, his son found the backpack and gun and accidentally shot himself.

When asked who the backpack belonged to, Alvarado told Granitz he once used it to store his clothes when he went to the gym, but it was now used by his sons for their video games.

Also, Granitz testified the gun had a safety feature and a built-in gunlock that required a key, but neither was used.

Dowdle argued his client could not have foreseen the tragic results of placing the gun in the backpack, that his son would find it in his parents' bedroom.

However, Chief Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk said it was inevitable the boy would find the gun because it was packed with his video games, which he loved to play. Alvarado also faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child, possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia. Granitz testified police found an extra gun magazine in a kitchen cabinet, next to a two-liter bottle of soda that had a hidden compartment used to store cocaine.

Dozens of relatives and loved ones of the boy and his father attended Wednesday's hearing and a bail hearing two weeks ago, both times leaving the courtroom in tears. Many of them on Wednesday wore buttons showing Alvarado hugging his son with the words ''No. 1 Father.''